The Rise of Jenova
by Dante James
Summary: Story Abandoned due to lack of interest. Apologies to any fans looking forward to later chapters.
1. Disruption

~Authors Note~

This story takes place several years after the first game. In this story the events that occurred in Advent Children do not exist.

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy, or Square Enix.

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><p>Years have passed since the fight with Sephiroth and Jenova. The fight that had decided the fate of the Planet and the fate of every living being that lived on it. However, I still work as a mercenarybodyguard. It's what I'm best at of course. But at least now I have something worth fighting for that isn't the fate of the planet. I fight to support my family. A few months after the final battle, I fell in love with Tifa. Luckily she was also in love with me. About a year after that we had a kid. Pretty cut and dry from there. She has her own bar and I work as a mercenary/bodyguard. I can only imagine Parent's Day at Cecilia's school once she's older.

Yes, my daughter's name is Cecilia. And yes I have a daughter. I just hope she doesn't turn out as aggressive as her mother.

"Cloud, what are you writing?" My wife, Tifa, asked as she looked over my shoulder and onto my Journal.

"N-nothing Tifa. Nothing at all." I said, closing the Journal and laughing it off.

"Don't bullshit me, Cloud." She said then picked up the Journal and opened it. "'I just hope she doesn't turn out as aggressive as her mother'?" She gave me a death stare. She then smiled and bent down to my level. "But sweety, I thought you liked it rough..." She said seductively as she bit my ear.

I winced, "No fair Tifa..." Then there was a bang, then heavy footsteps on the stair case leading to the upper floor of the bar. Cid burst through the door brandishing his spear.

"What the fuck do I have to do to get a drink around—oh shit, my bad. Didn't know you two were having a moment." He said awkwardly then left the room while scratching his head. Tifa and I looked at each other and laughed as we also exited the room.

The building was made up of four floors. The basement, the bar, the kitchen and living area, and the bedrooms. The basement was there to hold weapons, large stashes of Materia, and random liquors and beers for the bar. The first floor, which was the Bar, was a large square room with everything a Bar needed. There were circular tables scattered all of the room, several of them with chairs stacked on top. At the very back of the Bar was the actual bar, complete with swivel chairs. There was a jukebox in the corner left of the door. Nobody ever used it though, mostly because Barret hated all the music on it. Would you wanna piss off a large man with a gun for an arm? Yeah, thought so.

The whole gang was gathered on the first floor. Barret was kicking back drinking a beer, while Nanaki (or Red XIII) was sleeping by Yuffie's feet at the bar. The former Turks, Vincent was leaning against a wall while conversing with a drunken Reeve, the controller of Cait Sith. The actual robot was sitting in a corner. "So Cloud how was your and Cid's job today? Was the client please?"

"That whiny asshole of merchant wouldn't shut up the entire time. Its almost like he was _trying _to give away our position. Its because of him that the job was so rough! I say we shoulda got paid double." Cid yelled in his usual rude manner. We had taken a job that day that had involved a merchant and a rather large gang. It was pretty cut and dry, protect the merchant while he delivered some important goods. Too bad he was rather talkative. In the end he gave us away and we had to fight the entire gang. Of course we had to minimize casualties as much as possible, which is what made it harder. Its pretty hard to not kill someone when your weapon is a very large sword. Its even harder when you're Cid.

"Yo Cloud, what was that merchant delivering that was so damn important?" Barret asked finishing his beer and chucking the can into the trash bin.

"Dunno. Didn't care. Money is money ain't it?" I said, scratching my head.

"Yeah but now I'm curious. Dammit..." Barret said smacking the wall with his gun arm. "Ah well, nothing we can do 'bout it now eh? Hey Tifa, can I get another beer?"

Tifa threw Barret a beer while pouring Cid a bottle of vodka. "So Cloud, how's the kid?" Yuffie asked out of the blue in her regular cheerful manner. She wore her trademark smirk while swinging her legs above the Bar floor.

"She's sleeping at the moment. No need for her to be up so late." I replied while checking my Materia stock in a hidden compartment in the bar. "What'd you take?"

"Hey! My Materia stealing days are long gone," She said in annoyance, then tossed me the Lightning Materia she had taken, "starting now..."

I replaced the Materia, walked over to the table that Barret was sitting at and sat down. I set my Buster Sword on the table and began polishing it. "Yo, why do you do that every night?"

"I gotta take care of Zack's sword. He gave it to me, so I should take care of it." I said while still polishing. The room into a sort of boring silence. The kind of silence that occurs at a lame party or something. It wasn't too long before a random man in a black trench coat and fedora walked into the Bar. He sat down a seat or two away from Yuffie.

"Can I get you something, Sir?" Tifa asked while she wiped out a glass.

"Just a glass of water, please." He said gruffly. His voice was deep, kind of a sad deep. Like somebody at a funeral. "You're Cloud Strife, correct?" He asked without even looking at me.

"Yes, I am. Do you have business with me?"

"Oh yes, I have much business with you." He said in the same deep voice.

"Well come back tomorrow morning, this isn't a time to be talking business." I said, finally putting my sword away. "I'm sure whatever you need me to do can wait until tomorrow."

"No. This cannot wait." He said getting up and turning to me. "Your death cannot wait!" He yelled before throwing off his trench coat and ripping out a Materia orb from his chest. The man that had walked into the Bar had now changed into a large, red monster. He was about as tall as Barret, but way larger in build. Horns sprouted from his forehead, his hands turned into large, sharp claws and his feet turned into hooves.

Tifa and Yuffie jumped away from the bar, Nanaki still lie on the floor sleeping. He charged at me, knocking over several tables and chairs, while putting hoof prints into the Bar floor. I jumped away and threw a fireball into his face while Barret began shooting. Barret's bullets were absorbed by the monster's skin and my fire simply extinguished upon impact. I jumped away again as the monster threw a table in my direction. The table shattered off the wall as the monster threw even more of them aside. I heard a loud snap, and at that instant the monster stopped. I looked dumbfounded at the fiend, frozen in time.

"Was that so hard?" Vincent asked in a dull manner while holding the Time Materia.

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><p>~Author's Note~<p>

Thank you for taking the time to read my newest story,

I do hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Be sure to write a review on what you liked and on what you think can be improved. Thank you :D


	2. The Black Materia

~Author's Note~

If you are reading this then you either skipped chapter 1, finished it and liked it, or finished it, thought it was crap, and wanted to see if I could write even worse. Either way, thank you for checking out chapter 2 :D

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><p>Cid had skewered the fiend and we all watched as it disintegrated in a red glow. Vincent had started helping Tifa and I clean up the remains of the several broken chairs and tables that lie scattered around the Bar. Nanaki had finally woken up after getting hit in the head with a table leg. Yuffie had began examining the materia that the monster had left behind. It was Morph Materia but it wasn't yellow. Instead this certain materia orb was black as coal. It was also somewhat larger than most materia that was used.<p>

After the debris had been cleaned up and everything had calmed down, we sat around and took a good look at the peculiar materia. "You can't figure out how to use it?" Reeve asked Yuffie while holding the black orb in his hand.

"Unfortunately I can't. I've seen a lot of materia in my days, sure most of it stolen, but I've never seen materia that I couldn't use." Yuffie took the orb and tried to equip it to her Chakram. For some reason it wouldn't sync. "Its almost as if it's resisting the weapon." She tried syncing it with her armor, but still no dice. "I wonder how much I could sell it for..." She said with a wide grin as she threw it into the air in a playful manner.

"You aren't selling it.." Vincent cut in as he caught the materia while getting up from the table. He walked toward the door in his trademark cool manner and looked back at the group, "I'll see if I can get some information on this materia, and that random creature," he said before walking out of the Bar.

"I'd ask where he'd get the information, but that'd make me ask more questions." Yuffie said before getting up, "Anyways, its getting late mind if I crash Tifa?"

"I'm fine with it, just know that if you steal any materia I'll beat you to a bloody pulp," Tifa said with a cheerful grin, "Mkay?"

Yuffie had a horrified look on her face, "O-of course. Hehehehe..." Yuffie then carefully walked up to the 2nd floor, keeping a close eye on Tifa.

Everyone else left shortly after, of course Nanaki lives with us. Mostly because he's dog-like and whats the point of living in the outdoors if he could just live with us? Tifa and I headed upstairs to check on Cecilia figuring the attack would have woken her up. When we got to her room she was fast asleep. "I guess having a floor in between the bar and the bedrooms was a good idea after all..." I said while shutting the door to her room. When building the Bar we took basically everything into consideration. Since bar fights were bound to happen we decided to put a floor in between the bedrooms and bar so that the fights wouldn't wake Cecilia. Soon after we checked on Cecilia, Tifa and I went to bed.

_The Next Day..._

I woke up to Tifa letting a explosive beam of light into the room from the window. I always get the question of how I get my hair so spiky and precise. Truth is I wake up like this. Maybe its magic?

"Daddy, daddy!" My five year old daughter, Cecilia, said while running into the room and onto my lap. Cecilia was small, but she was pretty strong for her age. Her hair was blonde, like mine, but long and straight like Tifa's. Somehow she had gotten my Mako eyes. How that will effect her growing up, I really don't know."How was work yesterday?"

"It was a bit rough, but nothing daddy can't handle," I said with a grin. "Hey, Auntie Yuffie's here, you should go say hi to her before she leaves."

Her eyes grew wide and she rushed off down the stairs, "Auntie Yuffie, Auntie Yuffie!"

I chuckled to myself as Tifa walked into the room, "I think she gets the hyper-activeness from you," I said then got out of bed and put my arms around Tifa, "You were pretty loud last night.." I said with a seductive grin.

"Cloud that was you," she replied laughing.

"Mood. Totally. Killed." I said then placed a kiss on her cheek and headed downstairs. Downstairs Yuffie was playing ninja with Cecilia and Nanaki was drinking coffee out of a dog bowl. Yeah, try imagining that, its bizarre. "Hey Yuffie, you hear from Vincent about that weird materia?"

"Cloud do you honestly think Vincent would call me at 7A.M.?" Yuffie asked as if the answer was obvious.

"Well I figured since the two of you have started dating," I was cut off by Yuffie throwing a book at my head.

"We are NOT dating. We just went out to dinner." She huffed in an almost childlike manner.

"Yuffie, thats a date."

Her face turned red when her phone rang, "Yes? Oh hey. Yeah? For real! Alright we'll be right over."

"That Vincent?" I asked with a smile.

"No! Maybe. Yes..." She said hanging her head. "He found somebody who knows something about that materia. Apparently its a long story so he wants us to meet him."

"Where?"

"Downstairs." She said while walking out of the room. I followed her down to the bar where Vincent and a man in business attire were sitting at the table. The black materia was sitting in the middle of the table.

"So Vincent, who's your friend?" I asked, taking a seat at the table.

"This is Nale, I get a lot of my information from him." Vincent replied.

"I'll cut to the chase and tell you what I know about this materia." Nale said while folding his hands. "Now as you know the only other Black Materia most of us have heard of was the materia that summoned Meteor. But of course the Black Materia was larger than this. Also you tell me this is Morph Materia, yet it isn't yellow. I've further examined it and it is indeed a _type _of Morph Materia.. It isn't the run of the mill materia though. It looks as if its been fused with something. Not other materia, but something organic. You said it wouldn't sync with a weapon or armor. Well let me show you this." Nale picked up the orb and pressed it into his arm. The orb sunk in, and his arm turned into a monstrous claw. He pulled it out and put it back onto the table. "As you just saw, it doesn't sync with non organic material. He syncs with actual flesh and bone. And as you saw it didn't react normally either. Normal Morph Materia changes the enemy into an item. This Morph Materia changed me into the organic material that I was imagining."

"That you were imagining?" I said quizzically as I picked up the orb and pressed it into my palm. I began thinking of one of Nanaki's paw and my hand changed into the spitting image of it. I then thought of a talon like on a bird and my paw turned into a talon. "Amazing..." I touched my hand and still felt my normal hand. "So its just an illusion? It'd be perfect for undercover assignments."

"What I find odd is the fact that it syncs with organic material instead of weapons or armor. Even more strange is the fact that its A) Black B) Larger than average materia and C) it doesn't work like normal materia." Nale said. "I have an idea, I know a few scientists that study materia. I'll let'em examine this and get back to you with the results. Won't take more than a week."

"Works for me." I said taking the materia out of my hand. I handed it to Nale, who put it in a small case.

"Also, have you heard anything about random monster attacks in the city?" Vincent asked.

"I've heard of a few break ins but nothing too big. Why do you ask?"

"We- Cloud was attacked last night in the bar. The fiend that attacked him was apparently using that materia to disguise himself long enough to get in here. Though now that I think of it, it was definitely planned. And I've never seen a monster act intelligently." Vincent said, growing more confused by the second.

"How much do you think it would sell for?" Yuffie asked with a grin.

"We're not selling it!" Vincent and I both said at once. I sighed and looked at the case. I thought about the black orb and how it so closely resembled that of the Black Materia that Sephiroth had used. While thinking about Sephiroth, the case began to move. It was subtle, almost unnoticeable. But soon it became less subtle, it started to shake, almost violently. Nale opened the case and the materia flew at me. "Cloud, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Vincent asked.

"That maybe the materia reacted with the Jenova cells in my body? Yeah, thats a twist."

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><p>~Author's Note~<p>

Thank you for reading chapter 2 and I do hope you enjoyed it :D remember to leave a review on what you like or how I could improve.

Please note that when i say "Sync" I basically mean equip. The word Sync just sounds so much cooler :D


	3. Opening Old Wounds

~Author's Note~

What is UP? Welcome to Chapter 3 :3

Not much to say about this chapter except that I tried to make it a LITTLE longer than the previous chapters and if this length is fine with people than maybe future chapters will be this length. Anywho, enjoy Chapter 3 :D

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><p>The idea that Materia could be reacting to the Jenova cells in my body sounded absurd even in my head. But there was really no other explanation. The same type of behavior was seen during the Reunion held by Sephiroth. Subjects with Jenova cells injected into their bodies instinctively went to the Northern Crater, all because Sephiroth and Jenova were there. And here the same thing was happening with this strange materia. But wouldn't that mean that the materia also contained Jenova cells? Which also begged the question, how do you put Jenova cells into materia? So many questions rang through my head, but I couldn't answer a single one of them. It was truly frustrating.<p>

"Cloud, you alright?" Yuffie asked, putting her hand on my shoulder, snapping me out of my self-induced trance.

"I'm fine," I replied calmly. I picked up the materia orb, carefully looking over it. I let it lie still in my palm and it slowly sank into my hand. As the orb settled into my flesh a voice spoke, _"Rise. Revenge. Rebirth. Jenova will rise again, and with her rise the Planet will fall." _I took the materia out of my palm. I looked around at the puzzled faces of Yuffie, Vincent, and Nale. Did they not hear the voice? Was I going insane? More questions, but at least I now had a few answers of my own.

"Something wrong Cloud?" Vincent asked, taking the orb from me.

"I'm guessing none of you heard that.." I said, hoping I was wrong.

"Heard what?" Yuffie asked, "You put the materia into your hand and just stared at it."

"So you _didn't _hear that. The materia...spoke to me. Somehow, someway. I think it might have Jenova cells inside of it as well. That's the only way I can explain this..." I looked at my palm, and remembered what the voice had said. "'Rise. Revenge. Rebirth. Jenova will rise again, and with her rise the Planet will fall.' That's what it said."

"So what does that mean? Jenova is coming back?" Yuffie asked in almost a scared voice.

"Or she _is _back. She may not be powerful enough yet." Vincent said, replacing the materia back in the case.

"I don't think she's back yet, but she's trying to come back." I said in an assuring manner, "But that doesn't mean that she won't be back soon. She's getting help from someone, or something. If we find that someone or something we can stop her revival."

"This means we may not have much time left. We need to start searching _today._" Vincent conveyed.

_"_But what are we searching _for?_" Yuffie asked confusingly. "We have nothing to go on except for this talking materia!"

"I suppose we'll have to go to where it all started then," Vincent said with a pained look on his face. The pained look that he got every time he would think about Hojo or Lucrecia, "we have to go back to Shinra Mansion. That is where all the information and research on Jenova is stored. The research there may be able to tell us who or what would be able to revive Jenova."

Unfortunately Vincent was right. That was really the only lead we had to go on. But returning to Shinra Mansion after all these years, it'd be painful. After thinking that all of that was finally in our past, it comes back to haunt us. And to think that this was only the beginning of a new adventure that may have the fate of the world lying in our hands yet again.

"When do we leave?" I asked Vincent and Yuffie both. "Also, unless its vital, don't mention this to Tifa. I want to try and end it without disrupting her life."

"I believe I can be of some assistance. " Nale said out of the blue, "I can gather information on any newly formed cults and monster attacks. You said that the attack last night seemed organized right? Well perhaps the organized monster attack is linked to Jenova. You did say that it was using this materia right? Well, if we can find out where this materia and the monster came from, then perhaps we can find who or whatever is trying to revive Jenova." Nale placed the black materia in the small case it had tried to escape from. "But first we need to analyze this materia." He placed the case in his pocket and got up from the table. "Vincent, do what you have to do, when I'm finished I'll let you know. The best of luck to you three." Nale then left the bar.

"He seemed to be in a bit of a hurry." Yuffie pointed out. "Either way, to Shinra Mansion then?"

It wasn't easy lying to Tifa. I had told her the truth about needing to go to Nibelheim, but I didn't tell her why. I had only said that it was for a job, nothing more. I knew she trusted me, and knowing that I had betrayed that trust crushed me on the inside. But I had no other choice, I couldn't involve her and Cecilia in this. It was too dangerous. Sure, Tifa had fought against Sephiroth with me all those years ago, but its different now. If something happens to me, then Cecilia still has Tifa. If something were to happen to the both of us, then Cecilia would have nobody. Besides, I couldn't even think about endangering Tifa now. I have a family to protect, even if it means I have to lie.

I hadn't yet mentioned anything to anybody else. I figured I would tell them once I had dug up some information on the matter. Once I had gotten more information we'd have a clearer objective. Right now all we know is that someone or something is trying to revive Jenova. Until we have an idea of how to stop them, or even delay them, we can't do much.

Getting to Nibelheim wasn't difficult. We just borrowed one of Cid's airships. He has a ton of them for some odd reason. I suppose he likes to work on them in his spare time. Basically when he wasn't working, he was still working. I don't think he ever takes the time to settle down and relax unless its right after a mission. But you know what they say, idle hands are the devil's playground.

Nibelheim was a ghost town. Since Shinra had fallen, every Shinra employee had left the town. The only reason that Tifa and I had settled in Midgar was because of the business. Now Nibelheim was left to rot. Houses were boarded up and in disrepair. I didn't dare go into my own house, too many memories that would cause too much trouble. Lying on the far end of the town was Shinra Mansion in all of its haunting glory. Oddly enough it wasn't boarded up; in fact, it was in almost perfect condition.

"You two gonna be okay?" Yuffie asked Vincent and I concerningly. We looked at each other and nodded. The three of us walked through the gates and up to the front door. I opened the door, oddly enough it was unlocked, and stepped inside. Unlike the outside, the inside of the mansion could have used some work. Cob webs covered every visible corner of the mansion, while the walls looked liked they'd come crumbling down any minute. While walking up the stairs to get to the upper floor, my foot fell through the wood a couple times. I was surprised the entire staircase didn't collapse.

We silently walked through the mansion until we got to the secret passage that lead to the winding staircase that would bring us to the tunnel leading to the study. _Here goes everything, _I thought to myself. I opened the door and lead the way down the winding staircase. There were a few times where I had to stop and check if the wood was stable enough to walk on, and there were other moments where we had to hurry down the stairs so that the wood _wouldn't_ give way underneath us. Soon enough we came to the old study. The beginning of it all. "Ready?" I asked my two friends.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Yuffie began, "Can we just hurry up? This place is creepy!"

Vincent stayed silent, something I expected so I did not question it. I pushed open the study door and entered the room. Just the very site of the room could give somebody a coughing fit. Dust gathered everywhere. Every book, shelf and table. Though that was the only thing wrong with the room. Everything was in its right place. "I suppose we should start." I dusted off a bookshelf and began searching. So far I didn't find anything helpful. There were thousands of notes about cell experimentation, but nothing about Jenova cells or Jenova herself.

After possibly an hour of searching I had finally found a small number of notes that dealt with Jenova cells and how they worked. "Yuffie, Vincent, I think I may have found something." I said while flipping through the notes.

"'Bout damn time! I was getting a headache from all this reading." Yuffie pouted.

"Whats it say, Cloud?" Vincent asked, throwing down some obviously useless books.

I carefully read over the notes over and over before telling the two of them. Once I finally understood them, I spoke. "Basically, Jenova cells have an automatic survival instinct. They fuse with whatever organism they can find in order to survive. If an organism made up of enough Jenova cells is damaged, the cells will heal the wound almost instantly. But this is only if the Jenova cells are attached or injected into an organism that isn't Jenova. Actual Jenova cannot regenerate." I flipped to the next page of the notes, "Here it basically discusses that Jenova cells are able to be altered to the point that they can fuse with non-organic substances."

"Like materia.." Vincent said, trying to take in all of the information.

"Also, Jenova cells can basically, somehow, communicate with each other..." I said this quizzically because the idea of actual cells being able to communicate was just bizarre.

"So thats what happened? The cells in the materia were communicating with the cells in your body?" Yuffie asked, "Brrr that's just so creepy!"

"Tell me about it," I said flipping through more of the notes, "apparently the cells can also rejoin as well, regardless of being fused to something or not."

"But whats the difference between regeneration and rejoining? You say normal Jenova cannot regenerate but fused Jenova cells _can. _ Yet it also says that the cells can rejoin whether they are fused with something or not. This is just so confusing!" Yuffie held her head as if she had a migraine.

"Regeneration would be if a limb were completely destroyed but grows back. Rejoining would be if the limb were cut off, but reattached." Vincent conveyed to her, then patted her on the head.

I ran all of this information through my head, over and over again. Thinking of the possibilities. Thinking of what someone could do If they possessed this information, and the equipment and resources to do the experiments. Finally, It dawned on me. If someone had the proper resources they could potentially remake Jenova into a state to where she could regenerate from any wound. She could potentially become immortal.

"Jenova isn't being revived," I began and looked at Yuffie and Vincent, "she's being rebuilt."

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><p>Hehe, hope you enjoyed chapter 3. I'll be honest and say that it was REALLY hard to write. Mostly because I had writers block and I was really tired. But all in all, I hope you stick around for chapter 4 because that's when some action happens!<p>

Please remember to leave a review saying what you liked, or how I could improve! Any criticism is appreciated!


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